1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to telecommunications and, in particular, to voice identification. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to initiating authentication of the identity of a caller at a destination device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Telephone service has created communication channels worldwide, and those channels continue to expand with the advent of cellular and other wireless services. A person can simply take a telephone off-hook and dial a destination number or press a send button and be connected to a telephone line around the world.
While telephones provide important communication abilities between people, there is also the problem of persons and businesses that intrude into oneIs home or workplace via the telephone. To alleviate the problem of unwanted callers, callees may allow an answering machine to answer all calls and then wait for a person to say who they are when leaving a message, before answering only those calls desired by the callee. However, many phone subscribers opt for a messaging service, rather than attaching an answering machine device to a telephone line, where the messaging service does not play a message to the caller while the message is being recorded.
Alternatively, a caller identification (caller ID) that identifies the wireline or wireless number from which a call is received, may be transferred with a call to a destination device.
In addition, the subscriber to that wireline or wireless number may be identified. However, the information given to a callee at the destination device only indicates the identity of the subscriber to a line and does not indicate the identity of the person making a call. In addition, a subscriber may now select an additional service that blocks the caller ID for a subscriber number from being transferred to a destination device.
Therefore, in view of the foregoing, it would be advantageous to provide a method, system, and program for identifying a caller, rather than the number for the wireline or wireless service from which a call is made. In particular, it would be advantageous for a destination device to identify the caller identity of a caller placing a call, such that the callee may decide whether to answer the call or not before speaking with the caller.